Joran vs. Joran

In this blog I will compare two blogs written about the same current event. The goal is to determine credibility. Additionally, part of the equation will be looking at this notion of "content vs. connect" and how it plays a role in the credibility of these blogs.

Background

The current event that is at the center of this weeks blog is about Joran Van Der Sloot. He is most infamously known for this possible role in the murder of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. After a series of confessions and retractions, he caused must frustration and outrage in the public. He would never serve time for the crime as he was never convicted.



On May 30th, five years after Holloway's death, a woman named Stephany Tatiana was found murdered in Peru. Video evidence linked Sloot to the scene of the crime and he became the number one suspect. On June 7th he confessed to the killings, and later retracted this statement. I will be comparing two blogs which covered this story: one entertainment and one news.


Perez Hilton.com and Anderson Cooper 360.com both covered this story. When we look at their coverage of the story, from a credibility standpoint, Anderson Cooper's site is a news story. Yes it was written in a blog section, but it is a news staffer who wrote the story, thus it has all of the professional elements of something you would find on the AP. Perez Hilton, on the other hand, has a different feel to it. The site is an entertainment gossip column, and it isn't intended to have the same writing style or feel as a news blog. That is one of the key reasons I was interested in comparing the two. What struck me was how to the point the Perez Hilton blog was. It gave a lot of the facts of the story, had some quotes in it and has a link to the original AP article. One of the major differences in the two articles is the opinion tidbits you get in Perezs'. It features a picture of Van Der Sloot with the eyes whitened and word "monster" written on it, he comments on his joy of Van Der Sloot likely heading to prison. The CNN one doesn't have that, just facts.

Content vs. Connect

When we compare these two ideas, using the two blogs as the canvass, we can see that both articles, while serving content, really are about connecting us. The Anderson Cooper blog, has features all along the sides and links at the top, to connect the readers to the CNN website and other articles written in the blog. It is trying to attract readers toward other elements of the site, and while that may not be the main goal of how the blog is set up, it is a feature that is readily available to us as consumers. The Perez Hilton blog also enables the audience to connect. It has a link to the original story and links to what is hot in entertainment, on the Perez site, on the right hand column. This isn't a strange thing for either of these sites, because the goal is to get as many eyes as possible to view your content. The way to do that is to connect your audience around the site so they can see stories they would otherwise miss. While CNN is a more trusted and credible news source, I was impressed with the credibility of Hilton's story, even if it was sprinkled with a little bit of opinion.